March 18, 2016
Chapter 7
A good night sleep, an early morning walk in Van Long Nature Reserve, and around 11 a.m. we were on our bikes again. In North Vietnam, it is now the season of mưa xuân, the so called spring rain. Personally, I associate spring with sunny days, plenty of colours and light. I wonder if Vietnamese people have the same association since their spring is often grey weather, drizzle and mist. It has its charm, too. The landscape of karst mountains in Van Long covered in mysterious mist makes me think of Chinese traditional paintings. It is weather that inspires meditation and introspection.
On our day 3 we cycled mainly through some small roads. Finally I could take off my mask and breathe normally. Pleasant and calm ride along rice fields, small villages, forest patches, ascents and descends but nothing too challenging. Wherever we passed everyone was greeting us, waving and shouting ‘hello’! With all this attention and honours, I feel like a champion doing his victory lap. In the two and a half years I have lived in Vietnam, many times have I been perplexed by the Vietnamese hospitality and genuine positive interest towards foreigners. Considering the violent history of occupations and wars, which is still not so long ago, I find this remarkable and beneficial in many ways. I came to believe that one should not easily forget, but definitely forgive.
Problems on the road.
Lilyana’s bike had some issues with the gears. We started early our day and rode 30km to go to the city Thanh Hoa where we were told the address of a good bicycle shop. They fixed the gears and we were in a hurry to go further with our plan. Just as we went out of the city I had a flat tire. Ok, please don’t laugh, but yes, none of us actually knows well (I underline well!) how to take off the rare wheel. We asked google, read some advice and we managed to remove it. We changed the inner tube and as we started pumping it we realised that the pump we brought with us didn’t work. It’s an old pump from Holland, so I trusted it is in good state. But it was damaged and pumping was not possible at all. After a while of vain efforts a van with two guys stopped and offered us help. They took my wheel and tires, went to the village, put some air in and came back. And then for the big problem: we couldn’t fix the wheel back at the bicycle. We tried, the boys tried, more people stopped to help, they tried... and none of us succeeded. We watched youtube videos on the side of the road, followed step by step guides, and though we were doing exactly as shown, there was still a problem. At the end, I left Lilyana waiting there, on the road, while the guys took me back to the bicycle shop in town. There was something stuck and it took a while for the bike mechanics to take it out and put the wheel back.
All these problems took us more than 3 hours from our day. Desperately I was looking at the clock and thinking how little we had cycled. We had the rest of the afternoon and tried to catch up with the program.
It was a difficult noisy bad route, with heavy trucks riding both sides with great speed, houses all along the way. And like that we rode for 50km until the sun started setting down. At the end of the afternoon, we switched to a different road, less busy and noisy. And soon after we reached a beautiful big lake and area with just a few houses. We found a good place to sleep by the side of the lake and our day with problems finished well after all. As I got off the bike I felt like a cowboy getting off his horse after a long day riding in the Wild West. Thick cover of dust lied on my clothes, my face, inside my ears and eyes.
In the last two weeks I have cycled over 1200 km and completed more than half of my journey. So far, it has been an extraordinary odyssey: exploring the vastness of Vietnam on a bicycle, visiting unique places one after another more spectacular. Although physically very demanding, cycling long hours many days gives you the time and the opportunity to discover slowly, look closer, make contact with local people, and perceive things in a whole different way.
For long time already I have been thinking of writing about a different side of Vietnam. One that is not on the postcard-type of photos.
Vietnam is as beautiful and charming as it is polluted.
For over 1200 km already I have been cycling on roads where trash is omnipresent.
From the mountain tops to the sandy beaches of the coast a carpet of trash covers the land. A number of times, people from cars and buses threw their waste out of the window, just like that, and it landed straight on me. It is unbelievable the complete lack of awareness and education about how to handle your waste, what is what, where to dispose it.
On some occasions, it is laziness and negligence. Very often, it is massive ignorance.
Until recently, the remote mountain villages probably didn’t dispose with anything else but their organic waste. Now people there are selling and consuming packed foods and drinks, and these products’ packaging goes straight into Vietnam’s beautiful rivers and lakes.
The solid waste is perhaps the least of the problems. The water sources all over the country are contaminated, the air is severly polluted. Contrary to the common beliefs, not only the major cities struggle with these issues, but many small towns and villages, too.
As I cycle across the country, with regret I see so little left from the magnificent forests and century-old trees. The specialties of the Vietnam’s flora and fauna, if not extinct already, are perishing. Sadly, even the protected areas are often poorly managed and various illegal activities are thriving. An interesting moment for me was when I stopped to take a photo of people loading wood onto a truck inside the Phong Nha Ke-Bang National Park. The truck driver turned around and showed me the with his hand the majestic forest on the other side. His gesture meaning, I assume, this is worth taking photos of. Indeed...
"Forest is gold", proclaimed long ago Ho Chi Minh, the most beloved Vietnamese leader. So, we chop it down, sell the wood, and get rich? I think uncle Ho's idea was quite different.
There are many official reports ringing alarming bells that Vietnam’s fast development will lead to self-destruction. I leave the experts examining the issues and finding solutions. My humble opinion is solely based on my cycling experience and observations. The more I discover Vietnam, the more I think it is a special land with unique nature and warm and generous people. I can not imagine what will be like for the little children growing up now to live a life where you can never cycle without a mask on your face, cannot once drink water from the tap, can no longer see birds outside the cages.